Office Hours

$200k in Star Wars Toys Stolen frome California Museum

Star Wars is a serious business! Hundreds of thousands of dollars of toys went missing from Rancho Obi-Wan, the largest private museum of Star Wars memorabilia. It doesn’t look like it was an all-or-nothing heist, though. It turns out that the rare and collectable action figures had been robbed over a series of months from Rancho Obi-Wan. So was it an inside job?

Slowly, over time, the thief was able to sneak items out of the California museum. The full extent of the theft came after a different collector traced a stolen collectable back to its original seller, Carl Edward Cunningham. When that happened, the collector realized that Cunningham had also been peddling items, which appear to have been stolen from Rancho Obi-Wan.

He is now facing felony theft charges and is out on bail.

Most of the stolen items were “vintage US and foreign carded action figures, many of them rare and important pieces.” The total value of the stolen merchandise has been valued at more than $200,000.

Even worse, the owner has found it to be a “devastating betrayal” because the thief and owner have been friends for decades.

“I have known Carl for many years, considered him a good and trusted friend, and played host to him at my home numerous times,” the owner of Rancho Obi-Wan said.

Now, Rancho Obi-Wan are asking collectors to reach out if they have purchased memorabilia from Cunningham or have come across rare Star Wars items recently. The owner is hoping some of the missing pieces may be able to be recovered from his collection, but he knows that may be easier said than done.